Secret Weapon,
No matter how calm, cool, and collected your personality may be, this world is swarming with triggers and provocations that threaten our best-self composure, and often catching us off guard at a moments notice.
Whether it be a certain personality type, the tone of an email, or a blatant show of disrespect or disregard, we are all constantly engaged in a stimulus-response war to preserve our composure, and maintain a level-headed approach under fire.
How poorly or effectively we handle these tests can sabotage or soar our personal brand and career aspirations.
Yet rarely are these mental-emotional ninja skills taught in our professional development classes, or in our childhood and personal lives as we grow up.
Thankfully, not becoming provoked by others is a skill that can be learned with a few pro techniques and focused practice.
The first key to becoming trigger-proof is understanding the stimulus-response (reaction) process that goes on in our brains as we receive information, and determining that you will not live in reaction to anything.
Everything that happens to us is a neutral event until we assign it an emotional value and contextualize it for our brains.
Reactions are reflexive, emotion-based actions that are unprocessed and unhinged from a critical thinking filtering process.
As leaders, this should have no place in our lives.
We set the bar. We are role models. We don’t get a hall pass to have a “bad day” excuse.
Giving place to reactionary behavior sets a dangerous and damaging example to those around us who too will face personal affronts and offenses, and look to us for what good looks like under pressure.
How to Stay Calm, Cool and Collected In the Face of Extreme Provocation
“So if we want to respond in a way that we’ll be proud of, we need to try to dampen this neurological threat response as far as possible. And this is where the news gets better, because studies show that we’ve got a good chance of achieving this if we adopt what’s known as a “distanced” perspective – that is, if we imagine ourselves looking at the difficult situation that’s unfolding from a distance. Even in the midst of the bad thing that’s happening, this allows us to think more clearly and keep our best selves within reach.”
https://carolinewebb.co/stay-calm-cool-collected-provocation/
Disarming Your Buttons: How to Not Get Provoked
“Even in the face of serious outward challenges, if you’ve developed an essentially favorable sense of self you won’t feel threatened by another’s insensitivity, put-downs, or lack of compassion or understanding. For (to put it succinctly) you’re no longer dependent on external validation to feel okay about yourself. Your feelings of inner security are now firmly anchored from within. And as a result, if someone says or does something to you that seems unfair or unkind, you’re now fully capable of addressing it–or them–in a manner most likely to be effective.”
Have a wonderful weekend!
Secret Weapon Leader Team
